Earlier this morning, on both my Facebook and Twitter pages, I wondered aloud Is the Empire State particularly hostile to academic freedom? Is it particularly illiterate about the First Amendment? The reason for this slightly despairing query? Read this and despair for free speech: The New York State Assembly is currently considering a bill (A.8392) to prohibitContinue reading “The New York State Assembly is First Amendment-Illiterate”
Tag Archives: Israel
On ‘Bureaucratic Torture’ – Contd.
Yesterday I wrote about ‘bureaucratic torture.’ I anticipated it and remembered it with little joy. Today, I experienced it. I showed up on time at the consulate’s office (or rather, the office of the company to whom consular services have been outsourced.) I stood in line, dealt with the usual gruff security guards, was usheredContinue reading “On ‘Bureaucratic Torture’ – Contd.”
On ‘Bureaucratic Torture’
For the past few days I’ve been racked with a terrible anxiety: I have a visa application appointment tomorrow. At the Indian consulate, to apply for a ten-year tourist visa, so that I may journey back to the land of my birth and former citizenship. I’ve had photographs taken, filled out forms, checked and re-checkedContinue reading “On ‘Bureaucratic Torture’”
BDS at Brooklyn College: A Sobering ‘Success’ of Sorts
All is well or so it would seem. Corey Robin reports on the latest developments in the BDS-at-Brooklyn brouhaha: Now that the mayor, the New York Times, and just about everyone else have come down hard on all the government officials and politicians who tried to force my department to withdraw its co-sponsorship of the BDS panel, theContinue reading “BDS at Brooklyn College: A Sobering ‘Success’ of Sorts”
Academic Freedom and Syllabus Construction: The Question of ‘Endorsement’ and ‘Balance’
My focus here on this blog, before the weekend’s traveling-imposed break, was academic freedom and on ignorant attempts to severely attenuate it at Brooklyn College. These attempts have relied on two patently dishonest, obfuscatory tactics: equating ‘sponsorship’ with ‘endorsement’ and with proposing ‘balance’ as a valid desideratum for academic content. Today, I want to offerContinue reading “Academic Freedom and Syllabus Construction: The Question of ‘Endorsement’ and ‘Balance’”
BDS, Brooklyn College, and Dismissing Dershowitz (For the Last Time)
Some more direct consideration of comments on my BDS at Brooklyn College and Dershowitz posts (here; here; and here). These are now settling into a familiar pattern of repetition of the same claims again and again and again, so rather than responding to each one of the comments directly, I will address them en masseContinue reading “BDS, Brooklyn College, and Dismissing Dershowitz (For the Last Time)”
BDS at Brooklyn College, Academic Freedom, and Dershowitz’s Censorship
Yesterday’s post on Alan Dershowitz‘s attempt to intimidate the Brooklyn College Political Science department into withdrawing its sponsorship of an event on the BDS movement, featuring Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, generated some interesting comments. I will offer some brief responses here. Jared Michaelson worries about departments sponsoring ‘polarizing’ debate: The concern is this: aContinue reading “BDS at Brooklyn College, Academic Freedom, and Dershowitz’s Censorship”
Alan Dershowitz, Pro-Torture Plagiarist, Deigns to Lecture Us On Intellectual Honesty
Alan Dershowitz, a pro-torture plagiarist who has inexplicably managed to find employment at Harvard Law School, has written an embarrassingly incompetent Op-Ed at the Huffington Post. In it, he accuses the Department of Political Science at Brooklyn College of having an ‘Israel problem’ because it has sponsored, and thereby, according to Dershowitz, endorsed the contentsContinue reading “Alan Dershowitz, Pro-Torture Plagiarist, Deigns to Lecture Us On Intellectual Honesty”
Time Again to Support Academic Freedom
This morning, I received the following email from the Brooklyn College President, Karen Gould: Dear students, faculty, and staff, Each semester, student clubs, academic departments, and other groups on our campus host events and invite speakers on a broad range of topics. At times, the issues discussed may be challenging and the points of viewContinue reading “Time Again to Support Academic Freedom”
Pankaj Mishra on the Supposedly ‘Inevitable’ American ‘Retreat’ from the Middle East
Pankaj Mishra suggests America’s ‘retreat’ from the Middle East is ‘inevitable’ as its ‘financial clout’ diminishes and with it, its ability to control the ‘bewilderingly diverse and ferocious energies unleashed by the Arab Spring.’ Now, the language of inevitability in a domain as complex as geopolitics generally signposts intellectual arrogance: Can the interactions of people,Continue reading “Pankaj Mishra on the Supposedly ‘Inevitable’ American ‘Retreat’ from the Middle East”
Samir Chopra 